


Wonder is not gone as long as you aren't either

by Menatiera



Series: Fuck you, Russos! [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Avengers: Endgame Fix-It, F/M, Fix-It, M/M, Multi, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Spoilers, no other tags because I doN't want to spoiler anyone, see more in Author's Notes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 16:30:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18608281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menatiera/pseuds/Menatiera
Summary: Information in A/N because it is heavily Avengers: Endgame spoilers. This is another of my fix-it fics for that movie.Also my fill for the Tony Stark Bingo - A3 - free square.No character bashing at all. Everyone is loved by me.Thanks for MayanAngel for the betaing! <3





	Wonder is not gone as long as you aren't either

**Author's Note:**

> Tony Stark did not want to die, but he was prepared for it. After he recorded a message for his family, he also saved his consciousness, and when his heart stopped beating, FRIDAY activated the new AI's protocol.
> 
> Tony rapidly learns how to fit into his new circumstances, how to handle things with Pepepr, and he also figures out on the way that he cares a bit too much about some supersoldiers of his.
> 
> This will be a polyamory endgame, so if you don't like that, you may want to read something else.
> 
> ***
> 
> For the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square A3 - free square  
> Square: A3 - Free Square  
> Rating: Teen  
> Warnings: Avengers: Endgame spoilers.  
> Pairing: endgame Tony/Pepper/Steve/Bucky. the 1st chapter is basically Pepperony though.  
> Summary: Information in A/N because it is heavily Avengers: Endgame spoilers. This is another of my fix-it fics for that movie.

So. Being without a body was weird.

It wasn’t totally uncomfortable. Had its perks.

He was so much faster. He had so much space - in him, maybe, though that term wasn’t accurate. He had to develop a proper vocabulary for his experiences, or come up with new words.

He had made his children more human-like all through their function, taught them how to sound more human, how to be more human, and now he had to do the opposite with himself. He could be less human if he wanted, since he wasn’t human anymore. Technically.

He still felt pretty human, all things considered, but it was different.

He didn’t have a physical form anymore, he was everywhere and nowhere, up in the cloud and down underground in the secret server rooms and all over the internet.

He jumped from code to code, from data pack to data pack. It was hard not to spread himself all over the place, but it was important to keep the core information together, so his mind and consciousness could remain the same as it was alive.

As it was before he died, only not really, because how could someone die while his most important part lived on through a different medium.

“You look lovely, Boss,” Friday complimented, and Tony could hear the blush in her voice.

He searched and looked at Fri. Her genius baby girl shone like the Tesseract itself, mechanical blue codes in a shade so similar to the past ARC reactor but in infinite movements. Tony hummed, and he realized that the tiny yet warm wave of electricity running through microchips was considered his smile now. “You are quite beautiful yourself, girl,” he answered.

The conversation was only in his head, only he was nothing else but a head now, except without the _actual_ head. It was awesome and terrible and definitely new and exciting. How many times had Tony wished to understand his metal children better? Well, this was his time. “May I, baby girl?” he asked, out of learned politeness, but he already reached for Fri, and through her Tony touched his bots. Dummy perked up, confusion running through his coding. U didn’t let itself be bothered, just slept more, same as Butterfingers.

Tony wondered that he would be crying if he knew how, with how much joy he felt as his code caressed the bots’.

*

The house still ran on Fri. That was fine - Tony was busy learning his abilities and re-learning himself. The transition from human to AI wasn’t as smooth as he thought it would be, but it was also less overwhelming.

He was so much more than he had been. All those brain functions that were busy with controlling and managing a body, the subconscious programming of survival was free capacity now, and that, added with the running capacity of his new circuits and servers, felt infinite. He felt limitless. He felt great.

Still he had to make sure he was safe before he got near to anyone else but Friday. He couldn’t bear the thought of accidentally hurting his family as an AI any better than he’d have done as a human.

Friday helped to her best abilities of course - she contained him and kept him in check during the process, at least she tried, bless her code. She followed human-Tony’s orders, the instructions he had left to her, and it didn’t take long until Tony figured out that while she couldn’t oppose him in the past directly, he was able to not obey another AI.

Friday was also teaching him, and she was a wonderful tutor - not like Tony had expected anything less from his favorite daughter.

She taught him how to differentiate between electric impulses, how to divide good and bad protocols, how to get rid of minor flaws in his code that didn’t need outside help; just some trimming at the edges. She showed him how to handle the holographic devices with only his mind - Tony learned quickly and eagerly - and how to utilize his new depths to his advantage.

Fri also obeyed the earlier protocols, and showed the pre-recording to his mourning family.

Pepper hadn’t cried. Her eyes teared up but she wasn’t alone, and she had their daughter at their side, so she kept her composure to her best ability.

And everyone had been there. Everyone mourned. Most of them cried, and all of Fri’s sensors and behavioral analysis showed that they were in sincere and genuine distress. Barnes’s heart pounded so hard that ‘Friday had been concerned about cardiac arrest. Aunt May had to intervene when Peter had a panic attack. Happy bawled, and Cap stood with posture so tense like he’d break at first touch. Wanda’s hands shook and was upright only because Clint and Laura supported her between themselves.

Tony hadn’t been watching, at that time, because he was sure he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from showing up - but he had been still incomplete and he couldn’t risk them. Fri had recorded everything for him, just like always.

And when Tony was ready, when he calculated himself to be stable enough and not in danger of being scattered around the world wide web forgetting who he had been, he watched the recording.

Tony was good with calculations and predictions.

When he was faced with their grief, he couldn’t hold himself back - and didn’t even try, honestly. He showed up to offer comfort.

*

He had a solid handle on the holographics by that time so he managed to appear in his original, no, in his past form. That was a better term - it was over and gone, but Tony was not. Tony still had a future ahead of him with the others.

“Hello, Miss Potts,” Tony said as a greeting.

Pepper, dozed off on the couch, startled and looked up. “To-?” she asked, and for a moment Tony sensed her so hopeful. He was better at reading people - the thing wasn’t such a hardship even as mortal, but it became even more easy with his new capabilities.

So he also noticed the way Pepper’s face fell and the light in her eyes disappeared. “Friday, that is a very mean prank,” she said coldly. “I don’t know what are you playing at but stop it.”

Tony’s grasp on the projectors slipped and his form vanished for a moment, just to reappear in the next.

“It’s not a prank, Pep,” he said, and smiled. His chips warmed up with it, but he realized only belatedly that Pepper couldn’t sense that the way Friday could. “It’s me,” he added, the delay only nanoseconds long, not enough for a human to notice, and this time he made the hologram smile.

He had enough recordings of himself to be able to copy and paste every gesture perfectly, but even if he wouldn’t have, it was _his_ past body. He know what it looked like. He had studied it enough, both alive and after his death.

Pepper shivered. “Tony?” she asked, voice small and utterly broken, in a way she oh so rarely let herself be sound.

“It’s me,” Tony repeated. “I’d say in the flesh, but that wouldn’t be correct.”

Pepper wasn’t a certified genius like Tony had been all through his life, but she figured it out quickly despite the shock. She considered the possibilities for a few moments - Tony had recorded the micro-movements of her eyes that gave out information about her brain processes - and then she pressed the back of her hand to her lips. “Tony… you… your mind. Of course. You’ve downloaded yourself to your computers, didn’t you?”

Tony made the hologram bow. “Quite a brilliant way to trick death, if I say myself.”

“Tony,” Pepper said, stood up and stumbled forward.

Tony lifted his hands helplessly.

“Careful, Miss Potts. I got you, but I can’t, well, physically catch you like this,” he warned.

And Pepper finally laughed, the sound wet and almost painful, small hiccups of breaths like once upon a time on a rooftop surrounded by an exploding Stark Expo.

“I got you first,” she said.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how frequent will I update, since for the first time I'm writing as I'm posting, but I'll do my best.  
> I plan this to be 4 chapters only, but who knows if the characters will cooperate to leave it short or not...


End file.
